"How can you find glamorous the 10 to 15 penetrations a day endured by prostitutes for economic reasons with dramatic consequences on their health?"

Women's Rights Minister and government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told lawmakers "France is not a country that welcomes prostitution".

"The question is not sexuality. We are not here to be a moral police ... the question is about money that feeds pimping," she said.

'Advancing women's rights'

The head of the parliamentary commission created for the bill, Guy Geoffroy, also defended the proposition, saying it "advanced women's rights".

"We talk about the satisfaction of male desires but what are we doing about female desires?" asked Geoffroy, who is from the main opposition UMP party.

As the session got under way, supporters and opponents of the bill rallied outside the parliament.

"You sleep with us and you vote against us," shouted a group of about 150 prostitutes, many of whom wore red or white masks.

"They are trying to stop us from working," said Thierry Schaffauser, an activist from STRASS, France's sex workers' union.

About 50 supporters of the bill, including feminists and others, rallied nearby, holding up a banner reading: "Together for the abolition of prostitution."

There are an estimated 20,000 sex workers in France, many from eastern European countries such as Bulgaria and Romania as well as African nations such as Nigeria and Cameroon, and China and South America.

According to the interior ministry, foreign prostitutes make up 80 to 90 percent of all sex workers in France, a vast majority of whom are victims of trafficking rings.

Source:Al Jazeera And AFP

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